Military Review English Edition November-December 2014 | Page 81

OPERATION SERVAL

Mali’s capital, Bamako, the time
for action against them had
come.

Phase 0, Initial
Reaction and Force
Buildup
(11 to 15 January
2013)

Paris

Saint-Dizier

France

4,130

km

The first reaction came from
a French Special Forces aviation
unit stationed in a neighboring
country. The unit destroyed a
jihadist pick-up column moving south on 11 January 2013.
During this raid, a French pilot
was fatally wounded in his
Gazelle light-attack helicopter.7
At the same time, French units
Mali
predeployed in Africa were
1,100
Dakar
scrambled to provide a blocking
Chad
km
element, and the French Land
Bamako
3,000 km
Senegal
Forces Command started to
N’Djamena
generate the follow-on force
Ivory
to drive back the jihadists.
Coast
Meanwhile, air force and naval
Abidjan
aviation assets started targeting
jihadist facilities across northern
Mali.
Four days later, Hollande was Figure 2. Map Showing Deployments to West Africa
blunt about his overall intentions.
In a press conference, he said—
Africa, and a rapid deployment high-readiness system
Our aims are the following: first, to stop the
called Guépard (cheetah).9
terrorist aggression that wan ѕ